MEA line prompts fracas

MAT-SU -- Homeowners along Trunk Road gathered Tuesday to discuss a plan of action to combat -- or at least delay -- action planned by Matanuska Electric Association in their neighborhood.

Meanwhile, Mat-Su Borough Assembly members introduced an ordinance aimed at meeting a deadline for response recently set by MEA director Wayne Carmony.

Calling themselves "Guiding Gateway," the group is made up of about 40 homeowners who live along Trunk Road. They're armed with contact information for public officials and have been conducting their own research on what rights they may have in disputing the proposed location of a 115-kilovolt transmission line that would run through the borough's core area.

The line would connect a transmission line that presently runs along the Palmer-Wasilla Highway with one that runs along the Parks Highway. MEA officials have said the transmission line would provide two things of import to local residents -- redundant power for the new Valley Hospital facility off Trunk Road in the case of a power outage, and a backup source of power for Mat-Su residents.

Now, said Tuckerman Babcock, MEA's manager of governmental and strategic affairs, if a significant outage takes place, a lot of people would be out of power because there is no way to loop power back to people not directly affected by the outage. And, he said, the existing power line is beginning to get overloaded.

"The line from the Glenn Highway side is approaching its capacity," Babcock said. "The hospital would put us up to that."

Guiding Gateway homeowners said they wanted to see more planning before any clearing for power lines begins. At the meeting Tuesday, Dave Barnes discussed a few reasons the homeowners are concerned.

They believe, Barnes said, that the Trunk Road area is an inappropriate place to put a power line and that the public should have a chance to comment on the line and proposed alternative routes.

One resident, Mark Gordon, said he found it difficult to believe more public involvement was not required.

"It's hard for me to believe that they can put up a 100-foot line without an environmental impact statement," Gordon said. "This has brought up a lot of questions for me and I just can't believe they can do this without any notification."

Babcock said some property owners were notified after a Gateway Community Council meeting held Nov. 12 at Mat-Su College. At that meeting, Babcock discussed a proposal put forward by Mat-Su Borough and the University of Alaska Land Management program staff. The route would have cut across borough and university land, but would have followed a portion of Trunk Road as well.

That proposal crossed the property of about a dozen property owners. Since the meeting, Babcock said, MEA staff interviewed everyone along the route whose property would have been part of the route. Not one, Babcock said, was willing to grant MEA an easement.

That could mean MEA would be in for 10 to 12 condemnation proceedings, Babcock said, and the proceedings would drive up the cost of the extension. MEA has returned to its original proposal, which would use section-line easements as a route for the line. But that proposal, too, may bring about litigation.

Mari Montgomery, director of the University of Alaska Land Management office, wrote a letter to Carmony dated Thursday. Montgomery's letter reiterates claims made earlier by UA officials that MEA contractors wrongly cleared trees along a section line.

The university contends that the section line between two university parcels in the Johnson Lake area, near the intersection of Trunk Road and the Parks Highway, were deeded to the university before a law that allowed electrical utilities to make use of section-line easements, and that MEA has no right to either clear the land or use it for a transmission line. Montgomery's letter included a warning against future clearing.

"This is precisely the route that is not acceptable to the university," Montgomery said. "Any attempt by MEA to use that route will result in prompt legal action by the university."

Montgomery's letter was, in part, a warning, but she also extended an olive branch, vowing to grant easements for free, should MEA and university officials agree on the transmission line route.

And it appears a potential route is in the picture. Babcock and Ron Swanson, the borough's director of community development, exchanged letters Dec. 3 about a new route, which would use borough and university lands and, along nearly one-third of the route, would be tucked into a ravine that would make it difficult to spot from nearby homes.

Babcock said while MEA's section-line route is still the only route officially on the table, the new route may fit MEA's needs. If it's approved by both the borough and the university, it would be even more appealing.

There's only one remaining problem -- the borough assembly will first introduce the ordinance at its Dec. 14 special meeting. Because a Dec. 21 assembly meeting was canceled, the earliest the issue could be put forward for a public hearing would be Jan. 4. That's weeks later than the what Carmony said would be acceptable. In a Dec. 6 letter to the borough, he demanded action by Dec. 21.

"If an ordinance approving the grant of the necessary easement at no cost to MEA is introduced on Dec. 7, 2004, with a public hearing scheduled on or before Dec. 21, 2004, MEA is willing to delay easement clearing activities until Dec. 22, 2004," Carmony wrote.

Borough assembly members did not respond to Carmony's threat at their Dec. 7 meeting, but Babcock said MEA's timeline may allow for more flexibility than Carmony's letter implied.

"Even if we start clearing, I don't know how far they're going to get," Babcock said, pointing out that not much work gets done over the holidays. He added that if clearing begins, it will begin on the north end of the line, far from the section of university land where access is disputed.

Meanwhile, Guiding Gateway homeowners are planning to demand that the MEA board give homeowners and people who use the area a chance to comment on where they think the transmission line should go. MEA meets Monday in the MEA board room at 4 p.m.

Contact Rindi White at rindi.white@frontiersman.com.